Scars Heal
by i Love Lawliet
Summary: Scars. Everyone's got them, it all depends on how well you can cover them up. Slightly AU, MattxOC
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE: Then

_**A/N: Alright! The Debut of my new story has come!! I have to say, I'm pretty excited. I hope you guys like this story as much (hopefully more) that my last story "Memories" which going back an reading, it seemed too short so I don't plan on doing that with this story and beware of fluff and slight AU-ness! So please enjoy the latest installment of the i Love Lawliet collection, 'Scars Heal'**_

_**Thank you oodles to Osage with the help with the title! **_

PROLOGUE: Then

A young boy with dark red hair sat in his room playing his Super Mario game for his Gameboy. A pair of goggles clung to his forehead as he quickly pressed to buttons with a familiar clicking noise.

"Mail," said a woman with long, dark, auburn hair, much like the boy's, "Have you finished your homework yet?" she asked.

"Yes, mom." Mail said, not taking his eyes off of his game, "and I told you, don't call me Mail. It's Matt." He said.

"I'll call my son the name I gave him, you should be happy with your name, Mail. It was the same as your father's" She said.

"I don't like it. I'd rather be called Matt." He said

"But Matt's such a common name. this way, Mail sets you apart from everyone," she said, but he ignored her. he thought Matt was a cool name and he didn't want his name to set him apart, he wanted to blend in so that no one would ever notice him unless he wanted them to. "Mail…" she droned on.

"Matt." He corrected.

"I'm going to the store to pick up some groceries, do you want to come?" she asked, ignoring his interruption.

"No." Mail said, still not looking up from his game.

"Are you sure?" she asked, craving time with her only son.

"Yeah." he muttered.

She sighed and walked over to him and put her hand on his head, affectionately stroking his dark red hair. "I'll be back later, then. Be good, honey." She said, kissing his cheek.

He squirmed away from her slightly, but she laughed at his typical behavior, but that was the type of person Mail's mother was. She was kind and laidback, but she was smart too, and wanted her son to be smart as well. She shone with pride every time she heard one of his teachers praise Mail saying he was the brightest student in the grade, although she ignored them when they said he lacked motivation.

Amanda Jeevas adored her son more than life itself and was so proud of him and his natural talents. She only wished that he would every so often put down his Gameboy and spend time with her, but ever since his father had died, he seemed completely absorbed in his videogames. Amanda assumed that it was to keep his mind off of his father, so she allowed it as long as it made him feel better.

"I still don't get why you insist on wearing those goggles, Mail." She said, tapping on the glass eyepiece. "They look silly." She laughed slightly.

Mail didn't want to say anything because if he did, he knew something disrespectful and he didn't like being rude to his mother. Mail really did love his mother, even if he didn't show it very often. He always wanted to be as laidback and smart as she was. He looked up to her for her strength since he knew it was hard to be a single mother so he tried his best to make things as easy for her as possible.

"Bye, Mail, I'll be back later" she said, kissing his cheek again.

"Bye." He said, his face scrunched up in concentration suddenly became slightly triumphant as he beat the level's boss character.

She smiled at him and left him to play his video game.

That was the last time Mail Jeevas ever saw his mother.

"You should be right at home here, Mail." The man who introduced himself as 'Roger' told him while he was showing him around the school grounds. "There are many children here, so I doubt you'll be lonely."

Mail rolled his eyes behind his goggles. He didn't need any of these people, he would be perfectly fine on his own.

"I and over here is the recreational hall, which I'm sure you'll enjoy, Mail…" Roger continued to drone,

"Matt," Mail corrected by reflex.

"Matt? Is that a nickname?" Roger asked.

"I don't like the name 'Mail'" Mail explained.

"Most of the children here go by aliases as well, so I see no harm in you going by 'Matt' if you wish to do so." Roger reasoned.

Mail was stunned. This was the first time anyone had completely accepted Mail's request to be called 'Matt'.

"I'll have to put on your record that you go by the alias of 'Matt'. But what I don't understand, is why 'Matt'?" Roger asked.

"Because I don't like being different than everyone else, and the name 'Mail' is uncommon so I chose the name 'Matt' because it's a very common name and no one would ever give a guy like me with a name like 'Matt' much thought whereas I would appear interesting with a name like 'Mail' so really, I chose 'Matt' so that I could remain inconspicuous." Mail explained, though he didn't think that the old man caught a word of it.

"I see, that makes sense, is suppose. You're very much like many of the other children here, I'm sure you'll fit in just fine" Roger said with an assuring smile which Mail did not return.

After showing Mail his room, Roger left him so that he could unpack his things. He was told that his roommate would probably be back from recreation hour soon so they could get acquainted then.

When Mail was halfway through unpacking his things, the door opened. Mail looked up from his dresser to look at the person in the doorway. They were a year or two older than him with blonde hair that reached near their shoulders.

"You must be my new roommate." The person grunted.

Mail couldn't hold himself back before he burst out "Aw, shit! I didn't know they were making me room with a girl!"

The next thing Mail knew, he was on the ground with his arm held behind his back. "Girl, am I?" they hissed in his ear, "If I'm a girl, than you're gonna have to admit that you just got your ass kicked by a girl"

"Sorry, dude, my bad" Mail grunted, the guy finally released him and he began massaging his sore arm. "You know, I would have never even thought you were a girl if you didn't have such long hair" Mail said.

"Shut up, my hair rocks" the boy said. "I'm Mello" the boy introduced himself.

"Matt," Mail said.

"What a boring name." Mello said, "You should pick a cool alias or something like 'Goggle Boy'."

"'Matt' _is _an alias, it's common so that I'm inconspicuous since my real name is uncommon and if I have to explain this to one more person, I'm going to blow my brains out." Mail said, beginning to become frustrated. He hated having to repeat himself, which is one of the reasons he avoided people in general "… and 'Goggle Boy' is the lamest alias I've ever heard. The point is to be discreet about it" Matt added, for good measure

But the guy laughed at him, "I think we're gonna get along pretty well"

"Uh… sure." Matt said, just because he didn't want the guy to attack him again.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Now

Chapter 1: Now

_Beep. _

_Bang bang bang._

_Beep._

_Bang… Bang… Bang…_

_Beep._

_BANG._

"Damn landlords! Why can't they just shut the hell up for once?" Matt groaned as he turned off the alarm on the clock next to his bed. He rolled out of his bed and stumbled out of his bedroom into the livingroom/kitchen of his four-room apartment.

He didn't bother looking through the peek-hole on the door, he was fairly certain it was his landlord collecting the rent he had spent on the new "Super Smash Bros." and "Gods of War" games along with the manual for each and a new wireless Playstation 3 controller.

"Listen, Mr. Stephens, I know rent's due and all but I have a _very _good explanation this time…" Matt said as he opened the door. As soon as the door was unlocked, the door swung open and a young man with blonde hair came striding in carrying a large amount of luggage.

"Matt." He said in recognition.

"M-Mello!? What the hell, man!" Matt exclaimed. This was best friend he hadn't seen in the five years since Mello had left the Whammy house. Matt himself left two years ago and had been making a living as a hacker for a large company while living in a comfortable two bedroom apartment.

"So where will I be staying?" Mello asked his friend. Matt was surprised to see a large scar stretching down Mello's face making him look even scarier than before. But Matt knew better than to be scared of him, he was his best friend, after all.

"Holy shit! Mello, what happened to your face?!" Matt exclaimed.

Mello sighed in frustration and made his way towards one of the bedroom doors which happened to be Matt's room.

"Other room, man." Matt added. Mello simply nodded and headed towards the other door.

"I don't want to talk about it right now." Mello said with a hint of frustration in his voice.

"Sure, sure," Matt said waving his hand, "But you're going to have to fill me in on it sooner or later."

"Whatever." Mello said, waving off his friend. "Sweet place you got here, Matty, what've you been up to?"

"Oh, nothing _too _illegal…" Matt said with a laugh.

Mello laughed too, "Same here… I can't believe you're _still _wearing that shirt!"

Matt looked at his black and white striped shirt, "It's not the same one! And if you MUST know, I don't wear the same shirt, I have several that look the same."

"That's just retarded." Mello said.

"Well, look at you! What's with the leather, anyways? You look like you just came from a gay strip club!" Matt retorted.

Mello glared, "Well, at least I'm not wearing the same stupid goggles as I did when I was twelve!" he snapped back.

"Well at least I'm not sporting the same haircut as I was when I was nine!" Matt sneered at his long-time friend.

"Yeah you are!" Mello contradicted.

"Nu-uh! I've grown it out more!" Matt said.

"Same basic concept." Mello waved his hand at him dismissively.

Matt sighed in frustration at Mello's stubbornness. "I guess I'll let you unpack or whatever," he said exiting into his joint kitchen and living room.

"Oh, and Matt," Mello said, sticking his head out the door, "You aren't doing this shit in my room." He said, chucking one of Matt's ash trays that he kept in the spare bedroom incase he needed it out the window, "There's no way in hell that I'm going to die of cancer because you're an ignorant prick." He said, disappearing from sight again.

"I missed you, too, Mello," Matt murmured to himself, sarcastically.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Out of Place

"_Holy Crap, Matt! I can't believe that they leave the candy stash unguarded like this!" an eleven year old Mello said as he pulled his seventh chocolate bar out of the cupboard and throwing the wrapper on the large pile he had accumulated on the floor at his feet._

"_Well, they don't really think anyone would be able to get the key from them." Matt said, ripping apart a piece of licorice._

"_Which I'm still amazed that you managed to do that much." Mello added._

_Matt shrugged, "well, they really don't expect the kids who don't say everything that's on their minds to pull crap like this." He said looking pointedly at Mello._

_Mello rolled his eyes, "You're right they usually suspect the kids who hide their gameboys under their desks during class but still manage to be third in this place."_

_Matt grinned, "I'm just talented! Can you imagine what it would be like if I actually __**tried**__ in class?"_

_Mello glared and after a moment's pause said, "You just keep doing what you're doing." _

"_Is that a threat, Mello?" Matt laughed at his friend._

"_No, it's an order," Mello glared, but couldn't fight back the laugh._

"_Whatever, man. You know, you're kinda a jerk…" Matt said_

"_Well you're no Brock" Mello said back. _

"_Nice Pokemon reference. I like how you assume that you're the Ash in this friendship."_

"_Dude! I'm totally the Ash! You're the Brock."_

"_Fine. Ash is a loser anyways." Matt shot back._

"…_. Fine. You can be Ash. I'll be Brock." Mello seemed to change his mind._

"_No, no. you said it before, I'm the Brock, you're the Ash." Matt assured him._

"_But I don't wanna be Ash anymore…" Mello complained._

"_Well, I guess you can be Misty… I see the resemblance" Matt taunted._

"_MATT, YOU'RE SUCH AN ASSHOLE!" Mello fumed._

"_What is going on in here?!?! MATT! MELLO! What ARE you doing!?!" Roger suddenly bellowed from the doorway._

"_**shit!**__" they both said in unison. _

"I'm going out, Mello." Matt said as he grabbed his jacket and keys.

"Where are you going?" Mello asked from where he was seated on the couch surrounded by chocolate wrappers.

It caused Matt to roll his eyes when he noticed them. Mello never did change, did he? He hadn't been living there a full 24 hours and there were already chocolate wrappers littering the floor in all rooms. It didn't bother Matt much though, since he had never been much of a neat-freak.

"Game Store…" Matt said in a very robo-tronic sort of way.

"Well, that's not cultish at all." Mello said, sarcastically, "Seriously, man, you need to get a life, go find a girlfriend or something!"

"Dude, Final Fantasy XIII came out and I don't have it yet. We're talking FINAL FANTASY _XIII!!_, Mello! All the women in the _world_ will be forced to wait! That's how amazing XIII is supposed to be."

"That must be one hell of a game." Mello muttered, taking another bite of his chocolate.

"Believe me, it is." Matt said before leaving the apartment.

Matt walked outside, fumbling with his keys, mumbling to himself about how Mello was so naïve to think that XIII _wouldn't_ be awesome.

"He's _played _Final Fantasy XII, right? That should be explanation enough…" he muttered.

Apparently, he wasn't the only one who wasn't paying attention because while he was walking across the sidewalk, over to where his red mustang was parked, he crashed into someone who was considerably smaller than him.

"Oof!" he heard them say.

"Ow." He said, "Uh, sorr…y." he said taking a look at the person he had crashed into. She was a lot smaller than him, he wasn't surprised to find her on the ground. She had wavy blonde hair that went half way down her back and a pretty face that was twisted in pain as she eased herself off the ground. She was wearing a black T-shirt with a heavy metal band name that Matt recognized and a simple pair of blue jeans. Matt quickly hurried over to her to help her up, grabbing her by the arms and pulling her up.

"Thanks" she said, taking a look at him, "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention…" she said, her face turning red.

"It's no problem, I wasn't either." He said, letting go of her arms.

"Okay, well, I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I guess… uh… bye?" she said, anxiously inching away.

"Where are you headed?" Matt asked, he had room in his car and Final Fantasy could wait a little longer. Wait, WHAT?!? He did _not _just think that! All the women in the world would have to wait for Final Fantasy! But why did he suddenly want to spend more time with this girl?

"Uh, well I'm actually looking for this game that my cousin wants for his birthday." She said, still seeming in a bit of a hurry, "and his party starts in 20 minutes so as you can see, I'm in a bit a rush…"

"What kind of game?" Matt asked, curious.

"Uh… something about an attorney…" she said, unsure.

"Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney?" Matt asked.

"Uh, yeah!" she said, surprised, "You know what that is?" she asked

"Psh! I've already conquered Justice for All and I'm almost finished with Trials and Tribulations" Matt said.

"You must be quite the gamer" she smiled.

He shrugged. "I'm on my way over to the video game store now, if you need a ride I can give you one." he said

She gave him a skeptical look, "You were going there?" she asked, disbelievingly.

"Final Fantasy XIII has been calling my name for the past week." He said grinning.

She smiled at him. Something about this guy's goofy grin seemed genuine. She could tell from his face that she would be safe with him.

"Alright, fine." Katie said, "but only because I'm late as it is." She added, not wanting to seem desperate.

"Sure, sure" he said dismissively, waving his hand at her. He walked around his car to the driver's door. She stood there in shock. "Something wrong?" he asked, unsure as he leaned over the passenger's seat to unlock her door.

"This is your car?" she asked, disbelief littering her tone.

"Uh, yeah... is there something wrong with it?" he asked, putting the keys into the ignition.

The fact that he had the actual keys to the car seemed to relax her. She half expected him to start hotwiring the car but she finally accepted the door he had pushed open from the inside for her. "It's nothing, just that it's a really nice car." She said.

"You thought I was going to steal it, didn't you?" he asked, grinning broadly.

Katie grinned sheepishly, "sort of."

He was very easy to talk to. His lame jokes didn't fail to put a smile on her face, a fact that he was pretty openly proud of, judging by his grin.

When Matt pulled his car up against the curb outside of the game store, she was surprised by his gentlemanly act of opening the car door for her.

She smiled her thanks as she stepped out of the car.

Once they were inside the shop, Matt was no longer at her side. Instead, she found him with his nose pressed against a large display case with a sign above it that read "FINAL FANTASY XIII" staring at the games longingly.

She rolled her eyes at him and began her search for the game her cousin wanted. She had hardly begun her search for the game, when Matt was suddenly next to her again with a plastic bag in hand.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"No! I've barely started looking for that game yet." She exclaimed.

"Oh, I've got it already," he said, pulling it out of the plastic bag, showing it to her.

"You paid for it and everything?" Katie asked, surprised.

"Sure, it was no big deal." He said, dismissively.

She pulled out the receipt. "Holy crap! That game was 30 bucks! You paid for it AND your Super Smash Bros.?!" she exclaimed, suddenly feeling guilty for letting him pay for it.

"I told you, it's no big deal, I've got a well-paying job." Matt said.

Katie lifted a skeptical eyebrow. "No job that I can think of pays well enough to allow you to spend so much money so freely."

He smirked. "Let's just say, it's not a completely legal job."

Katie laughed a little, "Why am I not surprised? Ha, I figured as much."

He laughed as well, "Alright, let's get going. I'll give you a ride to your cousin's if you want." He said.

"Why, are you anxious to get rid of me?" she joked.

"No, you just look really out of place here," he said before pulling her out of the store.

"Humph!" she said, allowing him to tow her towards the car.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Holy shit Matt! You picked up a chick at the _videogame store?_" Mello exclaimed when Matt told him where he had been.

"Shut the hell up, Mello. How many times do I have to tell you? We just happened to run into each other – _literally_ – and we just happened to be going to the same place so I gave her a ride there. No big deal." He said as he placed his car keys into the strategically placed dish on a table next to the door.

"Yeah, right. That's why you have a phone number on your hand" Mello said, sarcastically, noticing the black pen markings on Matt's hand.

"Shut up." Matt retorted, examining the numbers on his hand, clearly out-witted.

"You amaze me." Mello said, from his seat in the large leather recliner in Matt's living room.

"What, with my stunning looks?" Matt asked, sarcastically.

"No, that you can be such an idiot and still be 3rd."

"Imagine if I actually tried to be smart" Matt joked.

"Yeah, well then you'd actually have to work for something." Mello said, nonchalantly, recalling how clearly anti-work Matt had been as long as he had known him.

"Touché." Matt said with a grin. "It's not like I'm gonna call her, anyway." He mumbled with a frown.

"Why wouldn't you?" Mello asked.

Matt sighed and allowed himself to fall onto his ratty couch, kicking his shoes off. "I haven't exactly had the best of luck with women" he said.

"You've had luck with women at all?" Mello said, obviously curious. After all, he hadn't seen his best friend in years. He hardly knew what he had been 'up to' in that time at all.

"Very funny," Matt said sarcastically. "But like I said, it wasn't _good_ luck."

"Spill, dude!" Mello said. Matt's eye twitched at his girl-ish-ness.

"I don't see you spilling your life story to me" Matt countered. He did not feel like going into this… especially with Mello.

"Well, this is different. My life story can't be nearly as entertaining as you trying to make it with girls." Mello said with a sly grin.

"You're such an ass." Matt said to his childhood friend who reminded him of a schoolgirl the way he was obsessing over his love life.

"Come on Matt, maybe talking about it will cancel your bad luck? At the least it might make you feel better." Mello said in a convincingly sincere voice.

"What are you, my shrink?" Matt snapped. "Just forget I mentioned it. It doesn't really matter now anyways." Matt said, staring blankly at the numbers on his hand.


End file.
